Disneyland and other pictures of me being a tit

Bon soir! So yesterday I realised that it's now exactly 4 weeks until I'm home, snuggled in front of my Christmas tree eating my body weight in oven-cooked meals. Where the hell has the time gone, seriously? I don't think my French has massively improved, which is ideal. My confidence is definitely a million times better, but my actual ability to form coherent sentences still leaves a lot to be desired.

I did, however, backchat a beggar the other day (only me, right). Basically, he told the whole train carriage that Sia, Sarah and I were 'little tourists' to which I snottily replied 'I'm not a tourist, I live here!' That sure told him.

I've also realised that I have no idea what I've done in my time here. I've still got some touristy things left to do, I've only been drunk about 3 times and the farthest I've been out of Paris is to Disneyland. Which is still in the same region. Will I ever escape Ile-de-France? Yes, because in 3 weeks I'm finally going somewhere! I'm heading to Strasbourg to see Sia (and the Christmas markets) for 4 days, which will be lovely!

Saturday before last, I had a nice little touristy day all to myself; I went to the Catacombes (grim, but fascinating)

rows and rows of bones...

sums the whole experience up really

taken by a nice Russian lady

 I finally climbed Notre Dame! It was well worth the half hour wait and 400 steps. I'm not even being sarcastic (well, maybe a bit) but it really was quite nice. Did you know that the animal sculpture things aren't actually called gargoyles?! They're chimeras, the gargoyles are the drain/water spout things! I know right, fun fact for you all.

quite proud of this one, obvs a professional now

I also visited the Archaeological Crypt and learnt all about the Romans in Paris, no award-winning pictures of this I'm afraid, but I did find out that the massive aqueducts over the train tracks into Cachan were built by the Romans, how mad is that!



I rounded off my day with a nice visit to Napoleon's tomb.

Have you ever seen anything like it?

The following night, we had another soiree at the residence, which involved a hell of a lot of food. Everyone made something (apart from me, Alessandra and Elinor because we got the wrong day). Spanish omelette, fried potatoes, Greek salad, Czech potato fritters, smoked sausage from the Swiss-French border, hot milk and honey, and some scary Mexican lollipops that made me want to cry. I did try my best and even took a big bite but I just couldn't finish it. Mau did take a picture of my first lick...saying 'Don't worry, I won't put it on Facebook, I'll just show my mother.'

Watermelon and tons of chilli powder, why

Last Monday, Joe and I took a trip to Alfortville, which was, I don't mean to be rude, full of Gypsies. We did see a rather impressive Chinese pagoda hotel though and had nice walk by the flooded river, which made a change to being in a rush around Paris all the time. Got some fresh-ish air in our lungs, went to see the Francois-Mitterand library, which I really don't understand the fuss about? And then headed to the cinema to see Quai d'Orsay - think The Thick of It but less offensive and more French. Most of the jokes went over my head, naturally, but I did enjoy the fascination with highlighters.

This weekend just gone, Sarah and Sia came to visit, which was cute! It was Sarah's first time in Paris so we did the obligatory tourist stuff (naturally, the Museum of Erotic Art comes under that category).

Intriguing

We also had a coffee in Cafe des deux Moulins, made famous by Amelie, so I can cross that off my bucket list! Saturday arrived and off we went to Disneyland, wearing our Mickey/Minnie ears. It was literally freezing, but it was amazing, obviously. Thunder Mountain remains firmly in my list of favourite rollercoasters and I absolutely LOVED posing for pictures with a statue of Buzz Lightyear. My kind of day out.

CHRISTMAAAAAAASYYYYYY

Sleepy is my favourite, and the best. Don't argue.

Sia and I, smileeey

Sarah and I, Buzz fecking Lightyear and what

The weekend also went far too fast though and now I'm facing the last vocab tests and assessments of term, ugh. Though, I did beat a couple of French girls in our German to French translation test, so I'll be sure to hold onto that when I think all hope is gone.

Tomorrow, I'm off to the Saint-Denis basilica with Niamh, and then we're going to watch the Christmas lights switch-on on the Champs-Elysees. Which will be stunning I reckon!

A tout l'heure! x

p.s Sorry that I nicked your photos off Facebook, Sia, does this count as an acknowledgement? Please don't sue me, I can't afford it.